Catching up a bit here, but just before the weekend 2K released a new video for Mafia II. It’s not brand new, but rather the clip shown at E3 last… wow, it feels a long time ago, but only last month. In fact, it’s literally the E3 demo, with Denby Grace narrating it as it goes along. It’s like you’re there, man, like you’re in that stuffy little room with the uncomfortable park benches. It’s well worth a look, since it includes some really fantastic examples of the voice acting. Well, if you can hear it behind the bleeps.

I’m not entirely sure why 2K have felt the need to remove all the naughty words from this trailer, especially when you’re asked to lie to GameTrailers about being 109 years old before it starts. But still, you can see the slippy-slidey cars in the mid-40s, get some background on central character Vito, and the way action can play out. It also features some of the really smart direction in the cutscenes, interesting use of focus, and my favourite, the really awesome smoke effects.

You have this, undeniably, beautiful world and some interesting AI events (cops pulling over people, people arguing in the streets) yet not ONE irate driver honking his horn every time the player cuts off someone or does something to endanger an NPC. Maybe you felt this would interfere with your “narrative”?

its the same gameplay all over again i have seen this one like 5 times
and i don’t know
its actually looks really like the first one
drive there kill that drive back
and the city looks the same
and the narrator is so full of crap
“oh winters its so awesome it gives so much”
i never saw anyone get that exited from a weather

That looked awesome, and the cutscenes are some of the best I’ve ever seen in a game (the eye movements were particularly believable). If they can keep the quality bar high throughout, and perhaps make Vito a little less stiff, give him an idle animation or something, this will be amazing.

Yeah, I did find it a little ridiculous that we couldn’t see a gun in someone’s mouth, but we could watch him get shot to pieces, blood flying every which way. Censorship really is silly, sometimes. NO BOOBS, MORE BLOOD!

It did look good: Mafia but better looking which is a win in my book. The driving looked nice too – no pivot point crap.

One question though: Which dribbling moron was it that decided that cars explode when shot with bullets? I am assuming it is a carry over from some 80’s action flick, I’m just curious if there is a single culprit responsible for it.

I Love those Bleeping mid40s cars. Odd thing though: Vito’s car doesn’t have snow on the top, but the others sure have….. And frost too..
Is it like a Special car or something, eh?
‘Cause it’s bleeping red and stuff.

And Why can’t he swear!!. He kills several men, blows cars up with his machinegun, and copies cover usage from Gears O’ war and still he cant say a BLOODY FUCK…

Oh one small thing that I am holding out hope for with this game: I REALLY hope it supports PC wheels properly. The first one did but as this is being developed on 360(spits) there’s a danger it will be pad only.

I Love those Bleeping mid40s cars. Odd thing though: Vito’s car doesn’t have snow on the top, but the others sure have….. And frost too..
Is it like a Special car or something, eh?
‘Cause it’s bleeping red and stuff.

And Why can’t he swear!!. He kills several men, blows cars up with his machinegun, and copies cover usage from Gears O’ war and still he cant say a BLOODY FUCK…

Boo to all the naysayers – Mafia is not supposed to be the standard open world game. It’s open world, yes, but it has a very tightly scripted NUH-RAY-TIVE to help create an experience dripping in atmosphere and intrigue. Personally, a little tingle went down my spine at the driving section at the start. I can’t wait to get stuck into that world.

So far the story telling aspect seems incredibly tight, which is great. This was one of those things I loved about the original, and it seems like they’re taking the best bits of that (story, characters, atmosphere) and improving the bits that weren’t so good (combat) which was okay in the first, but far too easy to get shot to death. I didn’t mind how tough it was but i think they needed to put a bit more power into the players hands to offset how easy it was to die and they’ve done that it seems with the cover system.

Exactly ZenArcade. The cutscenes of the first game (and by the looks of things, this one too) were wonderfully executed and exciting to watch. The old argument of you might be able to do it yourself in game maybe true but would never have conveyed them same weight as they have put into the cutscene (e.g. the killing of “the fat man” would have been strange because I probably would have tried to shoot him before he shot my buddy and then would have most likely found out that that would be impossible, breaking the atmosphere. Either that, or I would have been running around jumping on the tables.)

It is amazing to see this after watching the Bioware video of Old Republic yesterday. The contrast between the voice acting is staggering and just goes to show how poor it was in the Bioware video, no matter how much they attempted to state how wonderful it was.

On the censoring, it does seem to make the entering the birthday completely pointless when they still end up censoring the video. And I’m not to sure why putting a gun in someone’s mouth is so much worse than riddling him with bullets. Oh well, I was pleasantly surprised that the swearing was nearly as bad as the article seemed to indicate. It only really kicked in during the gun fight, so they aren’t just using it for the sake of it. The dialogue still seems to be great.

I’ve been replaying GTA4 on the PC of recent and even watching this video I really miss the Euphoria animation system, the cars system very rigid and their explodiness disappointed me. I think the NUH-RAY-TIVE will be great and it will definitely be an atmospheric environment but I don’t know, its not wowing me as much anymore.

Hmm. I think because of the current open world trend, tightly scripted linear experiences have fallen out of vogue, and for good reason, because the linear shooter romps we put up with from yesteryear are comparitively aweful. But now with the advancement of technology and creativity in the industry, there’s a potential to create genuinely breathetaking narrative that only a well scripted experience could bring. Just look at Call of Duty 4, for example. nothing original there, gameplay wise, but it was so well paced that it was a genuinely enjoyable hollywood action romp.

These parts in games like Far Cry 2 et al are seriously lacking, and while still remaining a fun game I do think that a really meaningful story and set of characters are usually best plucked from very strictly linear experiences that are well paced and well written.

There are exceptions though (GTA 4, but that’s because they had a humungous budget to spend) but I am very excited for Mafia 2. Seeing the snow mount on top of parked cars like that was lovely!

It looks sexy. I liked Mafia I, but the interface was a bit funky. Very fun none the less.

From the movie, i dont particularly appreciate the emphasis on driving since I think they should concentrate on other aspects, like doing mafia stuff. However, the feel of driving older cars could be quite nice since its frankly a novelty.

The cinematic was very nice. Very bread and butter, not trying anything stupid. Keeping it nice and oldskool. Works for me. The action that followed with the MG42 was kind of a let down. We know that’s not how hits go down, and we also know that cars dont explode if you put 20 rounds into them. As they moved out of the building, the started to reek of console. The zoomed in view again something I dont appreciate. I’m starting to think this game is nothing like Mafia I, instead, some kind of GTA prequel.

As the body count increases, the sight of any challenge in the game decreases. Scripts kick in, revealing a possible linearity to the game. “Vito do something”… Oh dear, what is this COD? More bodies bite the dust, starting to think the AI is dated since they don’t take any cover behind the countless pillars and boxes available.

Eventually, what could have been an open-ended hit, whereby you could have basically done it your own way (up close / far away / or even failed alltogether) was infact a linear scripted mission.

Cinematics are nice, but like the driving, it seems they’ve not given proper attention to the actual game to put it on par with Mafia I.

The first Mafia was one of my favorite games of all time. Hell, I bought it twice. It looks like they’ve kept a lot of the mission structuring, drama and inventive means to solve the “puzzles” the same (like driving through the fence instead of back the way you came), so this seems to be shaping up nicely.

Gonna buy this as Mafia is one of my all time favs, but that demo wasn’t for me. Looks all great, but I’ve always much preffered games that let you use the scalpel over the sledgehammer. GTA (Despite its reputation) was often quite good at this.

This mission is scripted so you have to machinegun some worthless goons, then go inside and kill more useless goons to get to a target you kill in a scripted sequence? I’m all for all out gun battles, but surely you can put them in a little bit of a better context? This guy is a nobody who hasn’t paid his protection and yet he has a fully tooled up army at his place of business ready to fight to the death to protect him?

I’m putting this down as an attempt to appeal to the console mindset, much as Bioware have (if you read between the press statement lines after the fan reaction) said their Dragon Age trailers were.

As an aside, I hope they fix the horrendous pop-up for the PC version.